...even though much of what she says doesn't really apply to me. For example, she talks about how when you're starting out in your career, you have the freedom to take a lot of risks because you don't have a lot of responsibilities. She talks about laying the groundwork before you have MKH (marriage, kids, house) for a career that can accommodate those things later. My approach is going to have to be a little different. I am basically on the same footing as a 22-year-old recent university graduate in terms of hireability, except that I have the MKH liability. I'm going to have to think of ways to spin that so it looks like an advantage.
Reminds me of the time I asked one of my professors whether or not she thought it was smart to do grad school immediately following undergrad, or whether it was smarter to wait a while. She was in favour of doing it immediately because if you wait, you might find yourself with kids and a mortgage and then it will be a lot harder to do it. I laughed and said "I just signed my mortgage papers last week. And I have a five-year-old." She said, "Oh", and I didn't go to grad school.
Anyway, I feel much more ambitious now than I have in many, many years. I made a to-do list at work! I am excited about all the things I'm going to do this week. I see that job hunting is not a task, it's a lifestyle (a PTism that I love).
This is making everyone around me (I live in a sleepy, slackerish town and work at a sleepy, slackerish university) sick to their stomachs.
I was sharing my enthusiasm with the guy who runs the till where I get my coffee and even wrote down the title of the book I was so keyed up about. He said "Sounds cool!" I said that "career" is a four-letter-word in this town and that everyone else I talk to rolls their eyes. He said "Yeah, I just did it in my head."
But then he's the guy who runs the till where I get my coffee. So maybe I'm on the right track.
Here is a gratuitous photo of my daughter birding at Summit Lake south of Kelowna.
